The present invention relates generally to excavators and, more specifically, to an excavator with a materials carrier mounted to a dozer blade in such a manner that it can be rotated to dump its load.
It is known in the art to have various equipment for movement of soft materials such as dirt and gravel, such as excavators, bulldozers, and graders. Excavators are commonly provided with a dozer blade and a back-hoe. Some models have blades with full orientation adjustment of the blade, such as on axes of yaw, pitch and roll in addition to height adjustment as the blade is raised and lowered on its mounting brace which pivots under hydraulic control at the tractor base. Other models operate with a blade at fixed orientation with only a height adjustment, such as the Kubota Excavator models KH-191, KH-61, KH-007, and others.
These backhoes are useful for a multiplicity of tasks, such as loading, trenching and piling soft material for later movement. Because the volume of material that the backhoe bucket can contain is relatively small, a second vehicle is generally required to transport materials, even for short distances. The backhoe loads the second vehicle, such as a truck, which then carries the material to its new destination. For short transport distances, the cost of employing the second vehicle could be avoided if the excavator dozer blade could be adapted to carry a load. The adapted blade could then be loaded by the backhoe or by moving the adapted blade into the material directly, and the load transported to its destination by the excavator itself, instead of requiring the second vehicle.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a materials carrier mounted to an excavator blade, thereby providing the excavator with a tote means.
Another object of the invention is to provide an excavator carrier that can be optionally removed from the blade so that the blade can be used in its traditional mode or in the new carrier mode.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a dumping capability without the use of hydraulic lines or moving subsystem parts.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide in the excavator carrier a capability of dumping its material by lifting at its front and pivoting the carrier on a horizontal axis at its top, thereby allowing material in the carrier to fall between the rotated carrier and the blade.
A final object is to provide a carrier that maintains self alignment with the excavator blade over extended use.
The above objects are attained in the present invention in a reinforced carrier mounted to an excavator blade with the carrier pivoting on a mounting pin at the top of the blade, leaning against the bottom of the blade in its rest position so that the blade becomes the back side of the carrier. When the backhoe is used to lift the front of the mounted carrier, the carrier pivots upward and material in the carrier falls out its back as it separates from the blade.